![what did the pilot of the enola gay say what did the pilot of the enola gay say](https://cdn.britannica.com/98/100998-050-A9BF7D25/bomb-pit-B-29-Superfortress-Enola-Gay-Japan-Aug-6-1945.jpg)
If a guy goes out and stabs to death hundreds of enemy civilians without a cause, that means the enemy civilians themselves were the target. An infantryman has an ability to shoot or not shoot at close range, so he could easily see the target with his scope. There is also a moral and psychological difference between killing 100,000 persons with bombs from the sky than herding people against a wall and executing 100,000 persons. Most crewmembers of the Enola Gay feel regret that it had to happen but some them, such as Paul Tibbets and Theodore Van Kirk, said under the same circumstances, they would do it again. Can you imagine what the death toll on both sides would have been, including due to starvation, if the U.S. Invading American troops would have been fighting Japanese soldiers and the "Patriotic Citizens Fighting Corps" house to house, city to city, street by street, etc. So in theory, even by today's standards, they were combatants. School girls were given bamboo sticks and farm implements and told to fight the Americans. It also has the side effect of killing many enemy workers who worked in those industries, therefore rendering the weapons manufacturing lines worthless and encouraging the enemy civilian population to withdraw from working in war industries.Īlso, the Japanese government had basically made the entire country into one vast military, silly as that was, by forming the "Patriotic Citizens Fighting Corps" in March 1945, which included all men aged 15 to 60 and women 17 to 40 for military service. was interested in stopping the production of those war materials completely.
![what did the pilot of the enola gay say what did the pilot of the enola gay say](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/08/04/PNJM/dc4c2409-ee36-4966-87fc-ba06e494da80-enola_gay_.jpg)
Carpet bombing by whatever weapons we had was the only option, if the U.S. High level bombing with explosive bombs had proved ineffective many times. Those war industries could not be destroyed with precision weapons because those weapons did not exist then. About 50 percent of important war materials were made in residential neighborhoods in most Japanese cities.įor example, the firebombing of Tokyo reduced industrial output by about half. The Japanese war industry was partially cottage industries, or in other words, spread out throughout Japanese cities. We actually broke the Japanese ability to fight, thanks to the nuclear weapons and thus, nuclear weapons did their job very well in ending the war, saving millions of U.S. The Japanese was scared as hell and decided to wave the white flag and surrender. The purpose of the atomic bomb was to show the Japanese we had a single bomb that could destroy as much of the enemy's war industry far more effectively than requiring 500 bombers carrying 1,000 tons of little conventional firebombs to do the job. Air Force was attacking Japanese cities with conventional firebombs, killing 500,000 Japanese civilians (half of them were munitions workers). If it weren't for the atomic bomb, Hiroshima would have been bombed with conventional weapons, which had been going on for months long before the atomic attacks. Hiroshima was a legitimate military target that housed the 2nd General Army and 5th Division with 40,000 enemy military combatants stationed in the city. It was estimated 80,000 people died, but while most of the dead were enemy civilians (half of them were shown to be employed in munitions factories), 20,000 were enemy military combatants. Japanese leaders clearly rejected the treaty and as a result, as promised by that treaty, they received a rain of ruin from the air with the newly-developed atomic bombs and more attacks from conventional firebombs.Īlso, it was not millions of enemy civilian deaths in Hiroshima. Japan alone could have prevented the deaths of its own citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by signing the paper that said: "Surrender now or face a rain of ruin from the air the like which has never before seen on this earth". Japan woke up the sleeping giant with the unprovoked bombing of Pearl Harbor that killed 2,402 non-combatant military personnel and civilians. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride." I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. Sherman said it best: "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.